In the city of Nokia, not far from the headquarters of Prima Pet Premium Oy, VAFO is building a modern dry food factory. Upon its completion in March of 2023, VAFO will be the largest producer of pet foods in the Finnish market. With an investment of more than 20 million euros, the project will create dozens of new jobs in the region.
The new ‘pet food kitchen’ will be home to Hau-Hau Champion, the Finnish market leader, which currently produces up to 20,000 tons of dry pet food each year. Other brands from the Prima Pet Premium portfolio (member of VAFO Group) will gradually move to the factory as well. ‘Our goal is to use as many local ingredients as possible, which have a small carbon footprint thanks to a shorter supply chain. Packaging will remain 100% recyclable, and we’ll continued to use offsetting projects to compensate for any leftover CO2 that we don’t eliminate in production,’ explains Tereza Alvarez, Marketing Manager at VAFO Group.
The new factory has been designed to be environmentally friendly, making use of technologies such as solar panels and an advanced waste heat recovery system. Moreover, it is situated in a developing EKO3-certified industrial zone ranked as a globally significant expertise cluster.
